19th Street was one of the city's earlier "whiteways" to have electric lighting. The lighting was upgraded and extended past 6th Avenue as far as 8th Avenue North in 1945 under the city's contract with the Birmingham Electric Company.

In 1981-1982 major landscaping was done to the first few blocks to designs by architect Pedro Costa. The intent was to create a pedestrian-friendly boulevard to help revitalize languishing commercial activity along the street, but the extended construction period had the unintended effect of further harming business traffic. In 1985Operation New Birmingham formed a "19th Street Taskforce" to identify specific improvements that could be made to mitigate the problem. Students from Auburn University's landscape architecture and planning programs participated in design charettes to sketch out proposals.